CARBUNCLE! The SD Gundam Story
by Charon the Sabercat
Summary: Shute from SD Gundam gets turned into a Final Fantasy Carbuncle! Don't worry, I'll try to make it less Shutecentric than my other stories. FINALLY DONE! HAPPY FORGOTTEN SD GUNDAMANIAC WEEK!
1. Headbutt

Carbuncle! The SD Gundam Story

Shute gets turned into a FFXI Carbuncle!

Double F: Which is the CUTEST Carbuncle of all of them!

Charon: GWA- Oh, yeah, I forgot you were here! THIS IS MY FRIEND, DOUBLE F! SHE ROCKS! SAY HI!

Double F: Hi-ya! (giggles)

Charon: Double F here wrote the original "Carbuncle!" story starring Sora from Kingdom Hearts.

Double F: And the Carbuncle from Final Fantasy XI.

Charon: Alrighty the-

Double F: Not the ones from any of the other games, because they look weird.

Charon: ...Okay-dokey-pokey-blokey- (pbbbtttt), where was I? Oh yeah! Yet another Shute-centric story! Shute gets turned into a Carbuncle! Watch him suffer! Um.... what else should I say?

Double F: Hmm....

Charon: (types Hmmm....)

Double F: (laughs as I type everything she says)

Charon: Okay, this has gone on long enough. ON with a story!

Double F: No, wait, we're not done yet!

Charon: What else?

Double F: Well... he uh..... He meets other people that are turned into Carbuncles! Like Sora! Sora is cute! I like his really spikey hair.

Charon: .... Some things never change.... STORY TIME!

Carbuncle was thinking as he slept, a feat which not most people can do. Most people either sleep or think with their eyes closed, but Carbuncle slept and thought...

Thought about how he needed a vacation. All these little do-nothing summoners going "I summon you" this and "I shall defeat Ifrit with your help" that and calling him "Pikachu". OOO, he had had ENOUGH of the Pikachu joke. He opened his eyes. "Okay."

He summoned himself from his crystal home and shook his long, long spine. "I'm tired. The world's tired of me. I'm going on vacation!"

With a flick of his tail, a portal opened within the fabric of space, a endless swirling mass of BLUE on the other side. He knew, however, exactly where this blue mass went to; his friend Fenn taught him how to get there. He took a deep breathe, swallowed, and hollered "NEOTOPIA, HERE I COME!" He jumped in with an enthusiasm unlike a demigod, the portal snapping shut an inch behind his tail.

Not half a second after, a black-decked man with one wing growing from his back jumped from the trees, his hand resting on a Carbuncle sized cage. He paused for a second, blinked, and realized that A(the cage was empty, and B( part of the railing had landed on his toe.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWW-HOOOOW-HOOOOOOOOW-OOOOOOO-ooooooooo!"

&&&

SPLISH!

Just my luck to land in a puddle, though the Carbuncle, shaking the water off his paws. He kicked the offending water and skipped away, out of the light forest of his landing spot and into the wide expanse of grass that was Neotopia National Park. Bounce, Bounce through the grass, oh, he couldn't have been happier! There was nowhere in Vana'diel this green, this open, this... un-dangerous. What was the word for not dangerous again? It had been war-time for so long, he had forgotten...

Just about that time, he noticed a white dot on the ground ahead of him. Closer inspection confirmed that it was not all white, but a bit of blue as well, and a dash of red. Carbuncle trotted up to the white thing to discover... it... um... well, it was a white thing.

A rather handsome looking white thing, too. It looked like a mechanical hume, about as tall as a young boy. Two golden spike came out from both sides of his forehead in a graceful sort of way; two yellow eyes stared at him from out of a black field. His body was wide and stocky, with hoof-like feet with wheels for heels. Come to think of it, it looked a bit more like a Galka without a tail, and in a good way, too. Its mouth came to a sharp point on its face, with two openings that might have been its mouth. Mouthes. Something.

Oh, and that bit of red he had seen; it was a hume boy! He was asleep on the kneeling metal-Galka's lap, his body curled into a loose ball. A mess of red hair sweeped back from his forehead; his face was a little bruised, who knows why, but it still held that angelic look that all children have while asleep. His hands were twitching. He was dreaming, the little angel. Such a comfy looking dreamy angel, too...

Carbuncle stepped forward and sniffed the hume that looked so peaceful. He smelled perfectly normal, if a little dusty.

"Don't get too close."

Carbuncle jumped and let loose a small "yipe!", standing with his feet spread in a defensive position. The metal-Galka was looking at him, the openings in his mouth flashing yellow as he spoke.

"Shute is afraid of dogs. He will react in a violent manner if he finds that you are here."

Carbuncle then snuffed its nose and tossed his ears; the nerve of the Galka to talk to him like that! Carbuncle defied the Galka's request and pushed himself into the crook of the hume's torso, settling his nose in the boy's armpit. The white Galka shook his head.

"Fine then. Don't count on me to keep you safe, though."

Un-dangerous! That was it! Safe! That's what it meant to not be in danger! Carbuncle yawned and drifted to sleep. He felt safe.

&&&

".......Oooooooooooooooooooooooow!" Sephiroth had finally been able to stop himself from screaming long enough to start yelling about how much his foot hurt and how much he hated that stupid CARBUNCLE!

&&&

Something's tickling me, Shute thought. Do I need to get up and see what it is? Um.... nah, I'm comfy- ee! It itches! I need to get up and see what it is... but I'm too tired. Maybe later. No, I need to... go back to... getting up.... back to sleep... no- WAIT! I'll make Capain do it!

"Captain, what's tickling me?" Shute asked, trying as hard as he could not to wake himself up.

"Some sort of Corgi-like creature."

Oh great, Captain was using words Shute didn't know again. Now he'd have to wake up and think about it. Or he could just ask. "What's a Corgi?"

Captain hesistated for a moment before speaking. "A breed of dog."

"A DOG!?"

Shute leapt from his side, scrambling onto his knees. He was unable to get to his feet on account of the sight of the bright-blue mostly-dog creature in front of him had scared him into submission. It shook it's head in confusion and smiled at him, but the auburn-headed one mistook it for baring its fangs.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Shute held out his palm and BOOM! Blasted Carbuncle with a bolt of magic energy! "Get it away, get it away!"

"HEY!" Carbuncle huffed again; some place! He strutted firmly up to Shute and rammed his on the head with his forehead ruby, knocking the boy into a daze. "And thank you very much for ruining my nap!"

Carbuncle began to toddle off, passing the standing white Galka made of metal. The white one looked at him. "I told you."

Carbuncle grunted and kept walking.

&&&

"MOM! MOM! DOG!" Shute barreled into his mother's stomach and tried to crawl into her lap. "Dog! Dog! DOG!"

"Shute, calm down!" Keiko, who had been happily (or maybe not) grading papers until then, cooed while stroking Shute's hair. "There's no dog here, honey!"

"Doh! Doh doh!" Nana cheered. This was her newest trick, chirping half of a word that she found interesting. "Doh doh!"

Shute winced in fear. "Nana, no! Anything but 'dog'!"

Keiko laughed quietly. Oh, she shouldn't be laughing while her son was terrified, but he was so cute when he was stricken with terror! "Well, Shute, did you have fun?"

Shute's mind didn't change gear so easily. "It WAS a little fun until that DOG attacked me!"

"The dog did not attack you, Shute."

"Hello, Captain!" Keiko waved as Captain Gundam stepped onto the patio. She returned his 'hello' bow before returning to her son, who had still not caught his breath. "You see, Shute, Captain said that the dog didn't attack you."

"Yes it did! It viciously came after me! It rammed me in the head and it hurt!" Shute runned the protruding part of his forehead, still red from the headbutt. "All dogs hate me because I hate all dogs, and it came after me! It snarled at me and everything!"

Captain sighed and held Shute's shoulders to comfort him. "All it did was sleep until you screamed at it, Shute."

"They're evil, Captain!" Shute cried. "You saw it! It tried to eat me! EVIL!"

"Doh, doh!" Nana interjected. "E-bihl!"

Shute smiled and, hopping off of his mother's lap, picked Nana up from her stroller. "Aw, yeah, you know dogs are God's most evil creatures, don't you, Nana?"

"Shoo..." Nana giggled and reached for her brother's face. "Shoo!"

"Aw, all you gotta do is get the 'T' right, Nana." Shute nuzzled the baby's nose. "Snoogy snoogy!"

Shute carried Nana away towards his workshop, and Keiko sighed and put a hand on Captain's shoulder. "He's never going to get over this, is he?"

Captain responded, "Hopefully he will, Mrs. Marxworth."

"I'm gonna go rock Nana to sleep!" Shute said, placing Nana under his arm and pulling her inside the house. "See you later!"

"But Shute, it's not even dinnertime yet!" Keiko sighed once again. "What am I going to do with him?"

Captain shrugged. "I don't know."

&&&

Sephiroth, by then, had finally finished cursing the Carbuncle and was now yelling at himself about how he had not caught it in the first place.

&&&

And, of course, Shute fell asleep upstairs with Nana under his arm like he did sometimes. It was nothing he could help; his stomach hurt. It was a strange, tighl feeling, like his muscles were trying to pull him inside of himself. He held on tighter to his sister and yawned, not noticing that his lips were catching on his protuding eye teeth.

Chapter one is DONE! Notes? None that I can think of!


	2. Fur and Ruby

Carbuncle! The SD Gundam Story, Chapter 2

Oh, boy. Shute's really in for it now as his fur grows in. I have to admit, I'm feeling a little limited as a writer because I practically only write Shute stories, but this thing was Double F's idea. Next story... actually, the next story is a little Shute-centric too, but I do have some ideas for Captain and Baku! Maybe I'll try and shift this one towards everyone else.

Shute began to wake up the next morning, the key word being "began". He could feel Nana rubbing on his cheek bone, but the odd part was that while Shute knew it was his cheekbone, it didn't feel... right. Like Nana was wearing fur gloves. Wait no, it was like his face was wearing the gloves... wait... yep, something didn't quite feel right.

Shute's eyes worked open, his arms still holding tight to Nana and grappling her to his chest. He checked himself over with his eyes, over and over and over again....

Oh my go-

He was BLUE!

"MOM!"

&&&

"MOM-MA!"

Keiko sighed and kept mixing the scrambled eggs. Shute had probably just had another nightmare, he did that sometimes after he saw a dog the previous day. She barely even acknowledge when he son tugged on her arm, Nana babbling behind her pacifier. She sweeped her hair away from her eyes as Shute kept crying "Mom-ma! MOM!"

"Yes, Shute?" the exasperated mother wheezed. Keiko caught a glimpse of a blue shape out of the corner of her eye. "Breakfast will be done soo-"

Wait, blue? She turned her head completely.

It was Shute, all right. A very skakey, wide awake, covered-in-blue-FUR Shute!.

"AAH!" Keiko jumped back onto the counter, barely missing the stove. "Shute, what happened to you?!"

"I don't know!" Shute cried, holding Nana even tighter. The lights of the house shined off of his fur in a silky, soft way, although his human eyes were wide in terror. He was extremely hard to look at due to his new contrast; a bright red overshirt, yellow underbelly, and sky-blue skin was really hard on the eyes. His knees knocked and his teeth chattered with the force of his shaking body. "I just woke up like this!"

"Oh, my baby!" Keiko squished her son into her shoulder and hugged him until he couldn't breathe. "Oh, what did they do to you? I knew I should've never let you go dimension hopping with those Gundams! Look at you now! You look like your Aunt Peggy!"

"I look like that stupid dog that attacked me!" Shute moaned, Nana still playing with his fur.

And then Keiko, being smarter than she acted sometimes, got an idea.

&&&

She furiously dialed the number for SDG Base, getting Haro on the answering screen. "SDG Base here."

"Chief Haro, I need to speak with Captain Gundam immediately!" Keiko tapped her foot while the hand that wasn't holding the phone stayed glued to her hip.

"I'm afraid I can only do that in emergency cases, ma'am." Chief Haro recited.

"You think this isn't an emergency?!" Keiko pointed angrily behind her. "Look at my son!"

Indeed, there was Shute, still holding Nana as a security device. He smiled meekly at Chief Haro, the movement of his muscles making the fur from his mouth to his breastbone ruffle. "Hi, Chief Haro."

Chief Haro then made a surprised "G-WOAH!" noise and stumbled off camera. There were noises of him scuffling around on the ground, then getting back up. He arrived back on screen with his hat in his hands and his head off center. "This is an emergency! Forget talking to Captain! You wait at home, I'll send a Gunperry to take you both to SDG Base!"

Shute whimpered, partly because that knot in his stomach was getting tigheter from fear and partly because Nana was rubbing his arm fur the wrong way.

&&&

"He looks like a Build-A-Bear doll!" Bellwood laughed.

Shute snarled at him, "This isn't funny!"

Shute sniffed through his nose and looked around out of boredom. It was your typical doctor's office, the only difference being that this office was floating hundreds of miles above his hometown on a cable extending from a satellite. The walls of the office only held three dressings; an anatomical chart of the human body, a painting of a bowl of fruit, and a mirror. In that mirror, Shute could see that he was sitting on the observation table, crosslegged and in his underwear, watching as Kao Lyn turned flips and cartwheels around him while Bellwood laughed.

"Hmmm, very perculiar. Other than the fur, you seem to be doing perfectly normal!" Kao Lyn cheered as he spun around and landed on his toe.

Shute sighed loudly. "I know that much." A sudden jab of pain hit his stomach, and he doubled over. "OW! My stomache!"

Kao Lyn and Bellwood were both hovering over him in a second. "What happened!?" they asked. "Are you okay?" they finished.

Shute gurgled like something was caught in his throat. "I feel like I swallowed a firecracker."

"A firecracker?" Kao Lyn wondered.

Shute spun his finger around in a circle to demonstrate. "You know, one of those little buzzy things."

"I can never get those things to work," Bellwood mused.

"No time!" Haro pulled out something that looked like a bar-code scanner out of nowhere. "This could be serious! We must scan for any possible discrepincies in his organ system! Ye-OOH-woo-hoo!"

BAM! He inadvertently jabbed Shute in the stomach with his energy scanner, apologizing after Shute hissed at him. The machine slowly began to beep, but oddly enough the strange energy it was reading didn't come from Shute's stomach. Kao Lyn moved the scanner up, up, up...

It was coming from his head!

Kao Lyn barely had time to tell Bellwood that it was very odd when Captain burst through the door of the office and scooped Shute into his arms. The strong Gundam grappled his best friend. "Shute, what's wrong? Are you hurt?"

Shute blushed, but you couldn't see it under the fur. "Well, I'm blue and my stomache aches. Does that count?"

"Shute, this has gone out of my jurisdiction." Kao Lyn raised his finger as he spoke. "We have no choice. We had to send you to the hospital for an MRI."

"Oh, yeah! I've had one of those before!" Shute piped as Captain's grip tightened. "I had to have those a bunch when I was younger, 'cause I was born premature and the doctor's didn't know if I would die or not."

"Okay, enough talkin'! Let's go!" Bellwood snatched Shute's arm and tried to pull, but his hands (or gloves, rather) slipped off of the fur like water off a duck's back, sending Bellwood's spine into the corner of the observation table. "YEOW!"

"I'M SORRY!" Shute cooed, digging himself into Captain's shoulder. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!"

"Please let me stay with him!" Captain begged Kao Lyn, but the wise man wouldn't hear of it.

"He needs to be in a fully staffed hospital with professionally trained doctors, Captain, not in an office with me and Bellwood! Now, let him go!"

The Neotopian Gundam looked Shute in the eyes one more time, hugged him, whispered something, then placed him on the ground. Shute shivered in fear as Kao Lyn led him out by the arm.

&&&

Captain left the office in a few minutes, greeted by Bakunetsumaru, Zero, and Chief Haro outside the door. Well, Zero technically didn't greet him; he was watching Shute walk down the hall with bugged eyes. "WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?!"

"I don't know," Captain moaned. His "stomache" was clenched and his fists were tightly closed; that couldn't be Shute! He was covered in fur... he was blue... His facial recognation drive was in turmoil. Was it Shute, or was it...

"Captain, Keiko said Shute was attacked by a dog," Chief Haro stated. "What kind of dog was it?"

Captain pushed the 'til-then-silent Baku out of the way ("Excuse you!" he yelled in surprise) and flashed a picture into the air; a picture of Shute and the blue "dog" right after it had head-butted him. "This kind," he said.

If Baku could blink, he would have at that moment. "What is THAT?"

"The so-called 'dog' that 'attacked' Shute," Captain answered in a mater-of-fact tone.

Cheif Haro pushed his head into his hand. "I knew THAT, Captain..."

"Yes, Chief Haro." Captain lowered his head in worry.

Zero was finally able to pull his eyes away from the hallway Shute had disappeared behind and took a hard look at the blue dog. "You know, that thing looks familiar." Zero crossed his arms and tapped one finger in thought. "Good news, bad news scenario..."

"Do you know what it is, Zero?" Baku asked.

"Well, that's just it. The good news is I had to learn about these things when I was a squire." Zero rubbed his chin. "The bad news is, I didn't pay much attention to anything when I was a squire..."

"Oh, the ONE TIME we need you for something, and you zone out!" Baku yelled.

Zero snapped back, a vein popping out of his head. "Don't you start with me! Don't make me tell Keiko all the times you almost called her one of your sister's names!"

"I have a lot of sisters! You only had one thing to learn about when you were a squishy!"

"SQUIRE!"

"WHATEVER!"

"GUNDAMS!" Chief Haro pointed down the hall. "Go accompany Shute to the hospital! I'll figure out what this thing is!"

"Yes, sir." Captain waisted no time in rushing down the hallway, Zero and Baku following a few seconds behind.

&&&

"Ooo, MRI tube." Shute playfully crawled in on all fours. "It looks a lot smaller then it used to."

Keiko stood on the other side of the observation glass along with three doctors (including Shute's doctor, Dr. Philip) and Captain Gundam, nodding and wiping her nose with a hanky. "You were much younger, Shute."

Shute looked into the glass from his spot on the bed, waving to people he new were there but couldn't see. "I was only five, Momma." He rubbed his arms for warmth, then stopped when his fur started to tickle him again. "When do we start?"

Shute didn't wait for a response and laid down on his back with his arms crossed, just as he had been taught. He looked up at the flourescent light in the ceiling, his eyes slowly drooping as his body forced itself asleep. He yawned, his fangs glimmering in the light.

"Will this hurt him?" Captain moaned, the emotion pouring from his voice.

"Not at all," said Dr. Philip, Shute's pediatrician. "He's had this done more times than I can count. Nothing bad will happen."

&&&

"Oi, Nana!" Baku chittered to the bouncing baby on his knee. The little baby was beginning to fuss, her fists stretched towards the last door she had seen Shute walked through. "Nakanaide. Don't cry."

"Ee bee bee!" Nana gurgurled. "Shoo! Shoo!"

"Nana, shush!" Baku slung her over his shoulder and looked to Zero, who was sitting next to him in one of those attrocious hospital seats. "Have you remembered the thing yet?"

The knight blushed lightly and lowered his head. "How do you say 'no' in your language?" Zero mumbled.

Baku raised his eyebrow. "Iie."

"That's it."

Nana began to squeal, and Baku bounced her again. "Nana, shizukani!"

"Talk to her in English, buffoon!" Zero hissed.

Baku pointed to Zero. "Damare!"

"Bakunetsum-"

BOOM!

Three doctors, Captain, and Keiko ran out of the smoking room, coughing and white with shock. Baku and Zero had barely gotten out of their chairs when Keiko began talking. "Nigennasai! Nigennasai! Shute wa-"

But she didn't finish. A glowing red light appeared into the smoke, and connected to that red light-

Was a slightly burnt, still blue, red-foreheaded Shute.

He felt terrible, mostly his stomache but now his entire body along with it. He'd been in the middle of the machine when the scanning light touched his head and exploded. He had come outside to find his mother, but he could see through his bleared eyes. The last thing Shute heard before he passed out was the sound of Zero collapsing to the floor in a dead faint.

Chapter two is done! Notes... uh... Don't look for pictures of carbuncles under "carbuncle" on Google. Carbuncles are also a skin sore that looks absolutely disgusting. You can't look under "Final Fantasy XI carbuncle" either, 'cause you don't really find anything. I'll ask Double F to draw a picture of one and put a link to it on my profile. DO YOU MIND, DOUBLE F!?


	3. Eyes and Ears

Carbuncle! The SD Gundam Story, Chapter 3

Shute slips farther into fauna as his eyes and nose come in...

Shute spent the next two hours in his hospital room with Nana. He spoke with her during that time, and this is the conversation they had.

"Nana, what the heck's going on with me? (Nana would babble incoherently between Shute's sentences, leaving him time to think about what he was going to say.) I never made the MRI machine blow up before! I mean, the fur and the thing that's growing out of my head now, don't touch it, Nana. What it is, a ruby? Ew! This is insane! I've already bitten myself on the cheek with my fangs, and I have to admit, Nana, the fangs are kinda neat. I can't change back into a human with my magic, either, it doesn't work. I stay like this. Nana, don't touch the ruby, you might turn into a me. What's next? Am I gonna get a tail? 'Cause that's what I feel like. Well, that and like I swallowed a buzzy firecracker. Nana! Sawaranaide! Don't touch it! That's it, I'm putting you back with Mom! MOM!"

&&&

Bakunetsumaru yelped "YAH!" at the surprise of a wooden something-or-other slapping him in the fanny. He pivoted about like a top and met a green-eyed blue thing peeking out from the doorway, holding a small pink blotch. He just barely recognized it as Shute. "Hi, Shute. What's wrong with your eyes?"

The statement sent a shock of mild surprise through the center of Shute's chest, he could tell, and the fur on his neck ruffled as a response, but his face didn't show it. "I don't know." Shute handed Nana to Bakunetsumaru. "Take her, she keeps trying to touch the ruby in my forehead."

As Shute's arm gave Nana to Bakunetsumaru, the flourescent light of the hospital hallway leaked through the doorway, and, lo and behold, two bright patches of green flashed into view!

Baku jumped, snatching Nana out of Shute's hand. His GunSoul began beating quickly; whatever it was, and he had a pretty good idea of what it was, was pretty!

"Shute, lemme see your eyes!" Baku ordered. "There' s something weird about 'em!"

Shute ducked back behind his door. "No."

"Come on!" Baku gave the doorknow two swift tugs. "I saw something cool! Come on out!"

"No!" Shute slammed his door shut. "The light hurts my eyes, I'm not coming out!"

Nana began reaching towards the door. "Shoo! Shoo!"

"Aw, come on, Shute!" Baku twisted the doorknob and began to open the door, stopping once he felt Shute tugging back. "Nana wants to see you!"

"I said no!" cried the young one.

Zero floated through the hallway at that point; he held a dollar bill in his hands, and was going to ask Shute if he wanted a Charleston Chew bar from the snack machine. What he found himself doing was floating above Baku threateningly. "Bakunetsumaru, leave Shute alone!"

"Lemme see!"

With a sudden show of force, Baku slung the door open, sending Shute into the ground in front of room 465 of Neotopia National Hospital. Zero scrambled to the floor to pick him up, lifting him into the air by his armpits like a three-year-old picking up a cat. But now Baku was appeased; Shute's eyes, just like he thought, were now diamond-shaped, completely green, and reflecting an emerald shine just like a cat's!

"He's got eyes like a rabbit!" Baku screamed, his eyes wide... and happy! "That is so cool!"

"I what?!" Shute slid out of Zero's arms and back into his room and into the bathroom, where in the mirror he saw his big rabbit eyes slowly changing from green to black. Not only that, but his nose was shrinking, becoming more and more like an animal's by the second. "I _AM_ TURNING INTO THE DOG!"

A twing of guilt and rememberance jabbed Zero's chest. "Actually, you're under the Carbuncle's curse."

Both heads - robotic and organic - turned to Zero. "He's what?," Baku urged.

"I just remembered a few minutes ago." Zero took a deep breathe and began. "The Carbuncle is a god of light in a dimension called Vana'diel. Its ruby is supposed to hold great power," Zero explained calmly.

"However, it is cursed because of what the Carbuncles did aeons and aeons ago - they allowed themselves to be domesticated so that humans..." He paused for a second, wondering what words to use."...and other races could harvest their rubies. Thus, the ruby is cursed in two ways."

"Two ways," Shute repeated, trying to comprehend.

Zero held up one finger. "One: those with weak wills are drawn to it violently. And Two: Whoever touches it gets turned into a Carbuncle."

Silence filled the room. At least, until Shute bursted out, "NANI?!"

"Well, it's what I was taught!" Zero growled.

Baku's eyes widened. "So you mean Shute's gonna turn into that weird little rabbit thing just because those freaky little rabbit things _let _themselves be domesticated?!"

"Machigattemasu!" Shute screamed (in Upper Neotopian, like he usually did under stress). "Sore wa fukanou desu!"

"Shute, I can't understand what you're saying!" Zero screamed back.

"He says it's impossible, WHICH IT IS!" Baku began swinging his fists in anger while Shute had to duck. "There is no way he can be turned into an animal that doesn't even exist in this dimension!"

"Don't question me, tiny-brain!" Zero snarled.

Shute was about to make them stop, but something caught his nose... sniff snifff... was that chicken-fried steak? HIS FAVORITE! Without thinking, he slipped out the door and down the hallway, leaving the Gundams to fight between themselves.

&&&

Three floors downstairs...

&&&

Shute tried not to make a spectacle of himself in the cafeteria, so he hid behind the buffet counter and ate out of the public's view. He savored his little bit of chicken-fried steak, which he was eating with his hands because he didn't dare to go and get a plate. The fur on his fingers was greasy, sure, but thanks to his new "Carbuncle' sense of smell, his steak tasted better than ever! He yawned as he ate, accidentally snipping his lip on his teeth.

As he finished off his last piece of steak, he turned around to face his reflection in the stainless steel buffet counter. His fur pattern was becoming more complex; his belly was pale white, and as he turned his head he could see a dark stripe running down his neck and presumably down his back. His head had nearly completely reshaped itself into that of the Carbuncle that had head-butted him. His ruby was framed by his forehead frill, which still made itself stick out of what was left of his hair. As he watched, his ears began to smooth to a point and grow, ever so slowly. He remembered how that stupid Carbuncle had those humungous ears and whimpered. "Baku was right. This is stupid. There's no way I can change into a Carbuncle. I don't even really know what it is. There's no way."

"THERE HE IS!"

The poor boy barely had time to react as three orderlies and Dr. Philip, his pediatrician, grappled him and hoisted him into their arms!

"AA!" Shute struggled and kicked against the orderlies' arms. They began to bind his hands behind his back with Plasti-Cuffs, which made Shute panic even more and CHOMP!

"IT BIT ME!" cried an orderly as it dropped him on his chin. "IT BIT ME!"

And the other two orderlies swarmed on him! And they weren't nice about it at all, oh no, they squeezed his neck and pinched his shoulderblades and hurt him all sorts of ways before Zero came to his rescue.

"What are you doing?!" The Winged Knight, who was hovered high above the doctor's heads, held out his hand. "Les mains ne peuvent pas tenir mon ami!" (The hands cannot hold my friend!)

Shute shot out of their arms like a bar of soap, sliding under the legs of a few escaping citizens, and was quickly scooped up by Bakunetsumaru.

"Get out of my way!" yelled Phillip.

"What are you doing to him!?" Bakunetsumaru shouted, pulling Shute to his feet and letting him go.

"I'm bringing him back to his room," Dr. Philip stated, crossing his arms. "He is under quarantine until we can determine whether or not he is contagious!"

"He's not contagious!" Zero growled. "I told you that already!"

"IT BIT ME!" cried the whiny, bitten orderly. "I'm gonna change into it!"

"It?!" Shute whimpered.

"You will not!" Zero snapped. He heard a sniffling noise behind him, and turned around to give Shute a quick pat on the head. "It's okay, Shute, he didn't mean it."

Philip winced in anger. "Well, it's not like we can let it out in public!"

Shute's eyes began to tear as the entire inside of his chest collasped like a house of cards. "_IT?!_"

Zero gasped in disbelief. "I don't believe you!"

"Come on, Shute, you're coming with us!" Baku pushed Shute towards the door, Zero floating behind him. "Just wait until Captain finds out what this guy's doing..."

And Shute smiled, in spite of himself, his chest still feeling hollow and cold. Dr. Philip, who had been his doctor since the day he was born, called him an "it"...

Chapter three is done! Notes: Hospital chicken-friend steak isn't that bad. It's what I ate the day my brother was born. It was tasty. That's all I can think of.


	4. Mouth and Nose

Carbuncle! The SD Gundam Story, Chapter 4

GAH! I'M SO HAPPY! DOUBLE F JUST GOT TRANSFERRED TO MY SCHOOL! AAAAAAA! WE'RE GONNA HAVE SO MUCH FUN! But, anyway, Shute has trouble staying in human mindset, and Captain has trouble remembering that Shute is Shute.

Shute sniffed as an unfamiliar smell hit his nose; he somehow knew it was his mother. She sniffled into her son's ear, hugging him tightly and squeezing his shoulders. "I should never have laughed. I'm so sorry."

He sighed mournfully; not now, Momma. Shute let loose a low growl that made Keiko jump and run out of the room. It took him three full minutes to realize that he had just scared his own mother away.

He jumped straight up in bed, his large ears (they were now about as long as his forearm) bouncing around his head due to lack of stronger ear muscles. He shuddered and held his knees to his chest, gulping and swallowing in fear. "That's it then... I'm turning into a dog..." He gulped. "No, I can't be! I am NOT an animal! I'M (_YARP_)!"

He whimpered when he realized that he had just barked. "Oh man..."

&&&

:command.exe.facialrecognition/Shute

File Error. File not found.

"Captain?"

Captain Gundam shook his head at stared at the figure before him. He performed a quick scan; it was 84.9387 Carbuncle, 15.0613 unidentifiable human. Despite this fact, it peeked out from its blanket at him and spoke to him as if it knew him.

"Captain? What's wrong?"

:command.exe.vocalrecognition/Shute

File Found.

It sounded like Shute. Captain touched his v-fins in worry, then looked back up. "Nothing's wrong."

:command.exe.vocalrecognition/Shute.-.facialrecognition/Shute

Syntax error. No file match.

It stared at him, its eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "You don't look yourself, Captain. Is something wrong?"

:command.exe.neutralmode/UnknownFigure

"Nothing is wrong."

The Carbuncle-like creature whimpered and slipped out of its hospital bed, adjusting its uncomfortable hospital gown. "Captain, you wouldn't believe what they're doing to me here! Doctors keep coming in here and trying to take blood samples, and I keep growling at them! I don't mean to, I just do! Captain, I'm acting like a dog at the vet!"

Captain nodded, trying best not to look directly into the thing's eyes. It felt wrong doing so, however; Captain tried again to make sure that, for certain, he didn't know this thing.

:command.exe.facialrecognition/Shute

Syntax Error.

"Syntax error?" Captain asked himself. The thing before him kept on talking, his words fumbling a bit due to his lips slowly splitting as he spoke.

"I mean, seriously, Captain, I've started snapping at people without realizing it! I'm turning into the dog, I swear, I am no better than that thing that attacked me!" He rubbed his long, long ears in worry, noticing that his short fingers were loosing their dexterity. "I think I'm growing paws now... I've already got the tails!"

He turned his hips towards Captain and waved three, long, bushy tails in his direction. Several of Captain's basic systems logged this entry for future reference and study; right now, for whatever reason, his head was in too much turmoil to think clearly.

The blue thing looked deeply into Captain's eyes, placing two paws on each of his shoulders to make sure he didn't look away. "Captain, promise me, if I do anything remotely animal-like in front of you, you'll smack me in the head as hard as you can. Come on, promise!"

Captain tried to look away, but couldn't. Something in the alien, black eyes was familiar to him. His systems ran the file again, colon-slash-slash-command-dot-execute, the whole file, but it said the same thing: Syntax Error. He did it again, the blue thing that may-or-may-not-have-been Shute still looking into his eyes, colon-slash-slash NOTHING! He turned his head away, forcing the boy to let go of him.

"Captain... I know that look..." The Carbuncle-like thing gulped audibly, the fur on his back ruffling. "That's the 'what-the-heck-is-that' look... Captain, you do recognize me, right?"

Captain began to say something to the effect of "No", but his throat collapsed on him. He knew it was Shute, something was telling him it was him, but everything else from his head to his feet said "No No No No NO!" He stuttered for a bit before the blue thing backed away from him.

"No... no, this is impossible..." the creature cried in fear, rubbing his ears again. "Captain doesn't even know me anymore... no, no, it's not true, this is all a bad dream...." He smacked himself twice in the forehead with the protuding part of his lower wrist before the pain was too intense to keep doing it. "Yume desu, YUME DESU!"

He kept smacking himself in the head, trying to force himself to wake up. Captain's arm lunged out and snatched him by the wrist, pulling him forward to stop the senseless violence. "Please, calm down!"

"Let me go!"

&&&

Not one second afterwards, there were footsteps outside his door; Zero and Baku, Shute could tell by the rhythm of their footsteps. They teased the door open and peeked in, Baku hanging back while Zero stuck his head through. "Is Shute still in here?"

"Hi, guys..." Shute slipped out of the surprised Captain's wrist and walked, with some difficulty, over to the two Gundams. Zero took Shute's head in his hands and held it to his mouth, kissing him on his forehead, knowing that his inorganic body was impervious to the Carbuncle ruby.

"Oh Shute, thank Maana you're still here!" The Winged Knight held the human/Carbuncle boy at arm's length. "They're going to move you to another place; I thought we'd missed you!"

"Another place?" Captain asked.

"Where?" Shute followed.

Bakunetsumaru gave Zero's back a quick jab, which Zero reacted badly to. "Ow! You said you were going to tell him!"

"Nuh uh! You said you were gonna tell him where he's going!" Baku hissed.

Shute began to shiver, that weird knot in his stomach coming back. Captain held his shoulder for support, and at that time both his body and Shute's forehead ruby began to glow. Captain shone a magical blue, the energy coming directly from Shute, not from him. He merely channeled what magic the frightened one gave off. Why the ruby was glowing, though, was anyone's guess. "Where am I going?"

"Shute, they-"

Zero pushed Baku out of the way. "The doctor's don't think you're not human enough to stay in the hospital! They're taking you to-"

And then the door slid open, three men and two burly women stepping in the room. One of the women held a leash, and the other was holding either side of a muzzle....

The realization hit Shute like a ton of bricks. "**A VET!**"

What happened next, no one was quite sure. All that the present group of people knew what that Captain suddenly erupted in an outpour of blue which was sliced through by a blade of red. A scream penetrated the air, the wind without warning rushed out of the room, and by the time everyone could see, Shute was gone!

But it was easy enough to follow him. Shute was changing more into a Carbuncle with every stride, his legs slowly melting into his sides as his leaps became more even. Magical and Carbuncle-le energy flowed from his body, snapping lightbulbs and frying any type of electric device, even mobile citizens, as he ran past.

He could barely see out of his own eyes, much less tell where he was going. All he knew was that those evil, EVIL humans were going to put him in a vet! A VET! With all those animals that hated him because they knew he hated them and would attack him at any minute, and now he was no better than THEM!

A dash of pink in the corner of his eyes suddenly kicked his brain into gear; NANA! Without thinking, his legs quickly turned in her direction, his jaws clamping around her and his legs furiously pumping to get him out of that terrible hospital.

CRIPES! Now even Captain, poor baby walking computer, doesn't recognize Shute! Next chapter may or may not come soon, depending on Double F's continuation of Carbuncle in the following weeks or days or whatnot.

Notes: I think Captain wouldn't recognize Shute because he probably thinks like a computer, relying on things like the shape of a face and distance between eyes and such instead of just looking and knowing like a human would. Of course, other things within him might contradict said program (coughsouldrivecough).

Check it out, my story has formatting! Yeah for formatting!

Oh, and a quick little thingy: That "Legendary" fic on is cool! It's about time Captain got some love. Rescue Shute quick!

DONE!


	5. Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes! Okay, B...

Carbuncle! The SD Gundam Story, Chapter 5

Shute's completely Carbuncle now, and it's gonna be a battle to bring him back to the human world.

Chief Haro jumped as a bright red dot appeared on-screen, not far from his own house. He pressed the intercom that connected directly to Captain Gundam: "We've found him."

&&&

Nana LOVED the new, blue creature she had for a big brother! She rubbed and yanked at his fur, stroked and pounded his back, and wailed into his ear screams of delight. She was completely unaware that Shute was on the verge of tears, fighting hard to keep from crying. He would sniff and choke and swallow his breath, all the while unable to steer himself away from his reflection in the water. The water of his favorite singing spot; the tiny rock pool where the Gundams found him singing just once, just once and that was all. He curled two of his three new tails around Nana to keep her from falling in the pool as she babbled on and started crawling over his back.

Rustle rustle-

He lept to his four feet and snarled in the direction of the trees, watching as Captain stepped out of a patch of poison oak. "Shute?"

It was true; if you hadn't seen him change half-way, you wouldn't know it was him. He had the body of a Dacshund, the fur from his belly to his back getting darker and darker until he had a dark blue racing stripe running from his forehead gem to the tips of his three tails. His cat-like face was ruffled with fury, his tiny fangs protruding like a rattlesnake's. The ears that had been growing for the past five hours had finally stopped at his flanks; they were not as long as you might think, though, because Shute had shrunken to the size of a small Gold Retriever. Still accenting his ruby was his little tuft of hair, which refused to sink into his fur like the rest of his near-nonexistant body hair.

Shute gulped and stepped over Nana protectively, who began to take an interest in his belly fur. "They told you to say that, didn't you?"

Captain jerked in shock; dang, he' d guessed it. He couldn't let him get suspicious. "Shute, come on. We have to go back to the hospital."

"They're taking me to a vet..." Shute growled. "They think I am an animal, and you're on their side trying to take me back!"

The ground around Captain rumbled as Shute-buncle began to glow blue. The white Neotopian skirted out of the way of a floating piece of ground that shot out from under his feet. He held out his hands to Shute in a sign of surrender. "Shute, I'm not going to hurt you. Just give Nana to me, and I'll take you back home."

"You said you were taking me to the hospital..." hissed the aggrivated ex-human, who tucked a defensive paw around Nana's back. "If you had teeth, Captain, you'd be lying through them."

"Shute, you know I don't lie-"

"You won't stop calling me Shute!" screamed... well, you know. "You didn't recognize me back at the hospital! You're just reciting some hostage-situation rhetoric hoping I'll fall for it!"

Shute stepped back slowly, pulling Nana along with one of his claws. She began to fuss; this dragging sensation was very uncomfortable. Captain took this chance to step ahead, pushing Shute towards the water of the pool. "Sh- please, calm down. You haven't slept in at least a day; you're just tired. Come home with me, you can take a nap, and everything will be fine."

"No it won't!" Shute screamed, scooching back even more, making Nana scream in fury. He chirped in fear and cuddled his baby sister in his forelegs, nuzzling her and whispering baby noises in her ear. Captain took the liberty of strolling forward, trying to look as non-threatening as possible.

"Shute, please, come with me. You're not an animal." Captain reached down to try and take Nana away from him, only to have Shute growl in response. He withdrew his hand quickly. "You know that better yourself than anyone around you."

Shute-buncle whimpered, looking away in shame. "It's not true..."

Captain leaned down onto his knees. As he began to speak, a little voice rang into his ear. "Captain, Shute seems to have calmed down. Should we send reinforcements?"

Captain switched off his communicator; Kao Lyn, who was on the other line, took that as a definitive "no".

"Shute, think about it. You are you. You still talk like you, you still act like you, Nana still loves you. Not what you look like."

The blue Shute's eyes widened in thought; Nana still rubbed her brother's fur with love, sucking her patsy audibly. Captain also paused in thought...

:command.exe.facialrecognition/Shute

His Soul Drive began to purr from within his chest as his hands started to shine.

Command overriden. Target recognized as "Shute".

Captain reached out and took Shute in his arms, pulling back his faceplate and letting the boy nuzzle his bare cheeks. Nana found herself being tucked under one of Captain's arms while her brother covered her with his tails. "I'm sorry, Shute."

"You didn't know, Captain, it's okay." The Carbuncle-boy yawned and began to drift off into sleep. "You're right, though, I am really tired."

"I know." Captain stood up, holding Shute in one arm and Nana in the other. "Come on, let's go home."

" 'fraid not."

Captain jumped and turned completely in midair, his faceplate slammed shut and his beamsaber in front of him. Shute landed gracefully behind him, holding Nana in his teeth.

Who stood nearby was none other than...well, actually thisman had never been seen before in Neotopia.. He was tall and muscular, with long silver hair and turquoise eyes that glared indignantly. Hewore asort of.... black dress-thingy that suited his menacing look and he held a very, very, VERY long-bladed, long-handled sword (a "Masamune", it was called) at his side. His black-gloved hands held a ball of dark energy in them, and he grinned menacingly. "I'm afraid that the Carbuncle with have to come with me."

"Who are you?" Captain shouted, gripping his sword tighter.

He slipped the Masamune out of its sheath and whipped in about a few showy displays of swordplay. "Your worst nightmare."

Shute mumbled out of a mouthful of Nana. "Been therh,heardh thahh."

Sephiroth scowled, thinking about how hard it would be to get this ruby when the carbuncle was awake. and with a guardian, no less! "Ah, well." He said. "We'll just have to do this the HARD WAY!"

("Been therh,heardh thahh tooh!" Shute tried hard to keep from laughing.)

"Not on my life, you won't!" Captain uncharacteristicly grunted, his Soul Drive beginning to go into overdrive.

"Ah! Very well," Sephiroth smirked. "If you're offering your life, I'm going to have to take it." Sephiroth threw the ball of energy at Captain, whom was thrown back into the tree behind him, knocking over the tree which missed a hidden Zero and Baku by inches.

"YOW!" They cried. "Watch it!"

Shute's eyes opened wide, spying Baku and Zero behind a tree. "Whah're youh doingh hehre?"

"More toys to play with?" Sephiroth laughed. "What fun!"

"Shute," Captain said desperately. "Run!"

"Whah?!"

"JUST RUN!"

Shute began to run, only to find an invisible force pulling him back in. "NOOOO!" He cried as he was drawn back into the fight. Nana was crying loudly, and struggling in Shute's grip. Nana, be still! Shute thought. Too bad thinking wasn't going to help.

But screaming would! Shute threw his head back and tossed Nana into the air. "Zero, get Nana out of here!"

Zero, who was still trying to recover from almost getting flattened by a tree, snapped back to attention and caught Nana in one hand. He squeezed her into his arm and began to fly away, watching as Baku tried to slice Sephiroth in two. The Blazing Samurai barely dodged a sweep of the Masamune before a tiny dash of blue skittered under his legs. "Shute, no!"

Too late, for Shute had jumped up and launched his tiny teeth directly into Sephiroth's midsection, landing just a little higher than a very painful bite area.

"YEOW!" Sephiroth dropped his sword from shock and began whacking Shute over the head, suceeding only in jamming his teeth farther into his skin. "LEGGO LEGGO LEGGO!"

Captain took this chance to land a sharp blow on Sephiroth's back, and managed to send the black-clad man into the ground. Luckily (or perhaps not), Captain's beam saber was not designed to cut anything remotely resembling human skin, so Sephiroth merely felt the sensation of getting hit by a baseball bat being swung by Godzilla. Shute bounced behind Captain and snarled; Baku landed nearby and stood with his swords ready to swing.

Sephiroth shook his head and stood up slowly, a lone black wing spreading out of his back. "That... hurt, you so-"

"It's going to hurt more if you don't leave Shute alone." Captain pulled a rifle out of his back and pointed it at the one-winged angel's head. "Now, I'm asking you nicely: Put down your weapons and leave Neotopia immediately."

"I'm not leaving without a Carbuncle." Sephiroth began to raise his hand. "Sin ha-"

"Super Magical Violet Tornado!"

A gale of wind suddenly shot Sephiroth off of the ground and into a tree behind the trio of two Gundams and Carbuncle/Shute. Baku sighed in relief. "Zero!"

The Winged Knight flew into view, Shute being the only one to see his wings flapping in the wind to keep him aloft. "No need to worry, your savior is here," Zero boasted, holding his sword over his shoulder.

Bakunetsumaru rolled his eyes. "Could you have a bigger head, Zero?"

Zero narrowed his eyes. "Don't start with me-"

"CAPTAIN!"

Shute's scream was quickly followed by the exaggerated sound of an impact; Sephiroth's sword slammed into the ground just a few inches away from Shute's low-set shoulderblades. With Shute out of sight due to the cloud of dust, Sephiroth leapt up and attacked the only thing he could see; Zero.

Without knowing what had hit him, Zero was suddenly face-first into the ground, a long cut sliced into his back from the Masamune. Bakunetsumaru roared in anger and hit Sephiroth from below, sending the angel into the water pool. Sephiroth coughed out a few mouthfulls as Baku tried to help Zero up. Captain placed the barrel of his rifle directly next to Sephiroth's temple. "I'm telling you again: Put down your weapon and leave Neotopia-"

Shute bounced out from behind his friend, his Carbuncle fur ruffled in excitement. "-Immediately! Ha ha!" He stuck out his tongue and "PPBHHTTTPPPPBBBTTT!"ed Sephiroth.

The black-decked man sighed and shook his head. "Fine, then. I have one last word- no, wait, two."

Captain's finger tensed on the trigger.

"SIN HARVEST!"

DONE! WEEEEE! This battle scene was fun to write! With generous help from the original creator of the Carbuncle series, of course, Double F. Comments, Double F?

Double F: Yes! This is much fun, and I HELPED! Yes, I did! I did, yes, I help, and I'm so good, yes...

Me: O... kay. I was thinking more like comments on the story, the plot progression, how the characters reacted, etc.?

Double F: Well, I think it went really well, and we both did a good job on this chapter, and I can't WAIT to do the next one.

Me: (sighs) Okay, that should be it. DONE!


	6. Holding Cell and, HEY, more Carbuncles

Carbuncle! The SD Gundam Story, Chapter 6

Meet the other victims of the Carbuncle's curse. It's not pretty. Neither is this chapter, but anyway, I have an excuse that I will elaborate later that has nothing to do with being dead.

Shute regained his vision after a few minutes of poking. It wasn't poking from a finger, either, it was poking from a paw. He knew it was a paw, too, because after a while, claws began to dig into his fur. He blinked for a while, but his eyes didn't focus right away, leaving him only with a light shape of Carbuncle blue before he gave up and went back to sleep.

"Hey, kid, can you wake up now?"

Shute shook his head, glad that he could finally see again. "Yeah, I think so."

Shute's eyes fell on a handsome-looking Carbuncle standing to the side of him. He stood relatively high compared to Shute, with long, well muscled (if furry) legs. His eyes were reflective and piercing, his entire body exuding the air of sharpness, almost as if he were a living sword. His fur was a much stronger hue than Shute's; an solid ocean blue instead of Shute's fluffy, cloud-like sky blue. The sharp Carbuncle took care to not point his nose towards the floor. "Good. Hey, whatever you do, don't look at the walls."

Of course, Shute (being previously human) immediately looked for a wall. "Why no- AAA!"

(Description edited for G rating, read FlikFreak's "Carbuncle!" for details.)

Shute collasped into a shivering fit at the feet of the pretty-buncle, trying (and actually succeeding) to rub the image out of his eyes.

"Told you."

The much larger, sharp-faced and furry Carbuncle that Shute happened to be sharing a cell with stretched, purposely spreading his tails so Shute wouldn't see Sephiroth's chair behind the prison bars. "Welcome to the holding cell."

Shute got a sudden chill, finally realizing that he was in a stone-walled prison cell, a complex system of fanning bars making up the door. His fur fluffed out and made him look like a blue marshmallow. He smiled weakly. "Um... hi. Nice welcoming comittee."

"Sarcasm, how original." Sword, as Shute was referring to him in his mind, sniffed loudly, tossing his head about like an agitated horse.

Shute bowed his head, sitting on his haunches. "I'm sorry."

"I'm Fox." Sword sniffed again, this time sneezing. "Sorry about... you. Just a little kid, and you're gonna be harvested for a ruby."

Shute gulped, taking a closer look at his surroundings. The cell was pretty dang dark, the only light coming from the barred prison door. Sadly, the lower bars were very close together, erasing the hope of escaping by squeezing through (at least through the bottom bars; the upper bars were large enough for a human to slip through). Just a bit outside the bars was a chair. A chair that Shute knew was Sephiroth's chair simply because he KNEW it was Sephiroth's chair. The walls extended into a long hallway past the chair, to where? Who knows.

"How lucky are the cursed, huh?" Fox monotoned.

Shute sighed. "Yeah..."

* * *

About five minutes later, Sephiroth dropped of a Carbuncle with a slender build and ruffled, dusty robin's-egg-blue fur. He scratched his name into the clay floor with his claws, identifying himself as "Toan". Past that, Toan wouldn't and/or couldn't talk to them, and instead retreated into a corner to nap. Luckily, Toan was nice enough to let Shute bunker down on his back, and Shute finally got a nice, 15 minute nap.

After that fifteen minutes, Sephiroth threw in another Carbuncle, this one barely the size of a puppy. His fur was incredibly dark, almost black when you looked at it out of the corner of your eye. This one could talk, his name being Vivi. Oddly enough, Vivi had not been touched by an actual Carbuncle, but had been sold a ruby at a store. Vivi hid underneath Shute's leg for a few minutes before cringing into the corner to be fearful for his life on his own.

And that's when Shute had an idea!

"Hey! We can't just stay here and wait to die!" Shute yelped. "We've gotta think of a way to escape!"

Fox picked up his Carbuncle ears, feigning an interest in what Shute was saying. "Really?"

"YES, REALLY!" Shute bounced to his feet and strode to the bars. "If we can stack ourselves on top of eachother, we should be able to squeeze out of the bars at the top and run to freedom!"

Then suddenly, a feeling of hope and warmth filled the room, with Toan and Vivi wagging their tails in happiness.

"Fox, Toan, you get on the bottom."

Fox, despite knowing for a fact this wouldn't work, stood next to Toan while Shute wiggled onto their shoulder blades, perching his forefeet on a crossbar on the door. "You're up, Vivi!"

Vivi began to jump forward, but quickly stopped. "But, how will I help you out once I get over there?"

Shute's ears drooped. "Oh..."

Fox jumped away swiftly, letting Toan and Shute fall to a heap on the floor. Toan sighed and left to try and find a better place to sit. Shute stayed, leaning his back against the bars and trying not to cry...

"It's a good idea..." Fox admitted, hearing Shute sniffle. "Just not a practical idea."

"Yes, sir..."

* * *

"I REMEMBER SOMETHING!"

Shute jumped up and slammed his forepaws into Fox's shoulderblades, waking up the still-miserable (and very tired) Carbuncle. "What now, Shute?"

"I'm magic!"

Vivi's head snapped up from his terrified stupor. "Magic? Whadda you mean?"

"I have magic powers! Like this!" Shute concentrated on the dirt floor. He pictured the sand-creature from Star Wars in his mind, and how the sand around it opened into nothing and formed a huge, inescapable pit-

RUMBLERUMBLERUMBLERUMBLERUMBLERUMBLERUMBLERUMBLERUMBLERUMBLERUMBLERUMBLERUMBLE...

The ground began to open up!

Fox, Toan, and Vivi all leapt to their feet, laughing in sheer joy! They all jumped into the center and began digging out the middle of the ever-widening ground. The sound was nearly unbearable, because the stones moved and shook and reverbarated every time they did it, but no one really seemed to care. Shute's throat fluttered; they were escaping! They were finally getting out, and they wouldn't be chopped up an-

POP! The ground broke open, and Fox fell into a cell filled with a bunch of normal-looking people (with weird-looking clothes, but that's besides the point). Vivi popped his head over the side of the manhole-sized opening in the ceiling/floor. "Zidane!"

A boy with blonde hair and a tail looked up from Fox's dazed form and caught Vivi's eyes. "Vivi! You're okay!"

"SIN HARVEST!"

* * *

New cell, just as dirty with identical bars, but a stone floor.

"Man!" Shute cried, thumping his paws against the floor.

Vivi dug his nose into his third tail. "How'd Sephiroth catch up with us?"

"We were only making more noise than a bulldozer," Fox smarted.

Toan slammed his head into the wall in desperation.

* * *

Not too much later, Sephiroth dumped a box full of one carbuncle and a ruined leather glove into the cell, mumbling about how his favorite glove was now Carbuncle chow. This carbuncle didn't look too much unlike Toan, except for maybe a hint of gold hidden somewhere underneath his long, blue fur. This Carbuncle had very broad shoulders and small eyes, perhaps made slightly smaller from the fact that he couldn't stop snarling. Shute tried to approach him, but the large-buncle snapped at him and nipped him in the nose with his teeth.

"OW!"

Fox jumped in front of Shute, holding out his tails like a shield. "You got a problem, punk!"

"Punk" snapped back around, his tails fanned out like Fox's and his teeth glistening. "Yeah, I got a problem! I've just been stuffed into a dingy cell with a bunch of losers waiting to be chopped into little pieces and sold to my worst enemy!" he rattled, speaking quickly and charging forward menacingly.

"Well, listen, Punk, we've got the exact same problem as you, and you have no right to take it out on the kid!"

Shute twitched at his mention and ran and hid in the corner of the cell, Vivi joining him and Toan barking from the other corner.

"Forget the kid, my own life's at stake here!" Punk screamed, pushing his ruby in Fox's. Spark flew out from between the two Carbuncles, bathing the cell in a sinister red.

Shute and Vivi yapped in shock and started shivering even more, a cold clenching feeling grappling both their chests. Toan bravely stepped forward, still barking (sounded a lot like a Chihauhau) and keeping a safe distance. Shute could feel a shout tugging at his throat, but he knew better than to say anything; he swallowed it away and pushed himself as far away from the dueling Carbuncles as possible.

"If you wanna stay here and wait to die, then go ahead!" Punk shouted, his ruby beginning to glow. "I'm getting out of here, and I'm not letting you get in the way!"

Fox's ruby then began to shower out sparks, one of which made contact with Toan's paw and set it on fire. He yelped and sat on his foot, extinguishing the flames. Shute's throat was now about to burst, and Vivi was hiding behind him, making him feel like some kind of human shield.

"We're not getting out with you be-"

"Stop it!"

Shute immediately covered his muzzle, burying his nose in the ground. Punk and Fox stopped fighting for about half a second before Punk turned to Shute and Vivi, his ruby glowing brighter than ever. He began to slink towards the two smallest Carbuncles. "What did you say to me!"

"ZIDANE, HELP ME!" Vivi shrieked as Punk reared his head. Shute knew that meant headbutt; he flinched just as Fox jumped in front of him and defected the blow.

"I said leave the kid out of this!" Fox roared. He rammed his forehead into Punk's jewel, sending sparks flying and Punk into the other side of the room. Punk counterred by repelling off the wall and ramming Fox into the bars of the door. The rest of the obvious violent and PG rated battle was soon drowned out by red lights.

Footsteps sounded from down the hallway; Sephiroth was coming! Shute and Vivi both heard the one-winged angel approaching and rushed into Toan's corner, the two of them hiding while Toan stood guard.

SNAP!

"ARF!"

SNAP SNAP WHIP!

"YAP ARF YOWLP!"

Fox and Punk, also known as Tidus for sake of me not having to introduce him, retreated into opposite corners, long, streaking bruises hidden by blue fur. Sephiroth wound his whip back over his arm and fixed his hair, his eyes twitching from the bright lights.

Vivi raised his little paw as high as he could. "Um, Mr. Sephiroth?"

Sephiroth glanced at Vivi out of the corner of his eye.

"Thank you."

The one-winged angel sniffed arrogantly and walked away.

* * *

At last, Sephiroth threw in what is going to be the LAST Carbuncle in this flippin' story (can you tell I'm tired of writing this thing?) directly on Fox's back. Still unconscious, this Carbuncle looked like a more muscled version of Toan, though not as big as Tidus. Shute and Vivi wasted a bit of time trying to drag the boy off of Fox, but after a while Fox admitted he enjoyed the warmth and made them leave him alone.

Shute nestled himself on Fox's shoulder, dieing for some kind of physical affection. Captain would, by now, be getting ready to leave Shute's house for the night; the Gundam would usually ask Shute to change into a rabbit so he could carry him around for at least an hour before he left. Shute would sometimes sit on his shoulder like a parrot, but Captain liked the feeling of fur between his fingers, so Shute usually wound up being held. Zero and Baku would usually say their goodbyes for the night as well, Zero ruffling his hair and Baku pinching his cheek so hard that his teeth hurt.

But, just like that, Shute was stuck in a dingy cell with five strangers that happened to be in the same, strange situation that he was. No Captain to save him, his magic was useless... he was a total goner. He was waiting for death. The thought of it made his stomache turn.

But Fox had been decently nice to him, he thought. Fox was the closest thing he had to a friend right now. He tried to look at the pretty-buncle without moving his head, but Fox was in his blind spot. "Hey. Fox?"

Fox did something unexpected; he put his head on top of Shute's, like puppy litter-mates would. "Yeah, Shute?"

"Do you think my friends are here like Vivi's were?"

Fox paused for a second. "We they nearby when Sephiroth sin-harvested them?"

The memory made the boy shudder. "Yes?"

"Then they are." Fox sighed heavily, partly because of the new-buncle weighing down his lungs. "I can smell my friends. They're not far from here. Krystal's gonna be worried sick about me... if she's not dead yet."

"Don't say that." Shute warned, not really meaning his usual words of encouragement. He didn't believe himself right now, but it was no reason to make everyone else miserable. "Something good'll happen, Mr. Fox."

"I'm no 'mister', kid," Fox replied, his jawbone moving awkwardly on Shute's thick hair. "I'm a fox, but I'm no 'mister'."

"Your last name is Fox?" Shute asked, a bit confused.

"My _species_ is fox. Turned into a carbuncle in less than a day. Kinda liked having more than one tail, but... that's not important, why am I telling you?"

Shute was even more confused, until the realization hit him. He immediately jumped up and began backing towards the wall. "Yo- you're a dog!" he whimpered, shaking but feeling nothing, not scared, angry, or anything. His emotions had been turned off, leaving only a sack of organs and synapses to speak for him.

Fox raised his head, making the newest Carbuncle slip off of his back by an inch or so. "No, I'm a _fox_. My friend Bill's a dog, there's a differ- wait a minute." Fox's ears drooped on his head, and he began to study Shute's face. "Oh no. You're one of those cano-phobes, aren't you?"

He couldn't respond. Shute's throat was swollen with shock, fear, guilt, and a bunch of other emotions he didn't figure out until later. He felt very very very numb at that point. He hunched his shoulders and kept his eyes on Fox, who he now expected to jump out at him and attack him at any moment.

But he didn't. Fox just sighed and curled himself up again, leaving Shute to zone out and stare into space.

DONE! FINALLY! And the story's still got two chapters at least to go! MAN!

Introducing:

Fox-buncle: Fox McCloud of Star Fox fame, set after Star Fox Adventures.

Toan-buncle: Toan (name changeable) from Dark Cloud, part 1, set after Dark Cloud.

Vivi-buncle: Vivi from Final Fantasy IX, set sometime after Final Fantasy IX (I guess, I'm not the one who played the game, my friend Double F is).

Punk-buncle: Tidus from Final Fantasy X, set during Final Fantasy X (because there's no way he could come in after).

Nap-buncle: Sora, from Kingdom Hearts, set during Kingdom Hearts (specifically, sometime after Kairi is found).


	7. FINALLY, WE'RE DONE!

Carbuncle! The SD Gundam Story, Chapter 7

Main storyline told better in my friend FlikFreak's story "Carbuncle!". I'm taking this in my own, shorter, direction.

After Shute snapped out of his fear induced trance, Sora had woken up and they had formulated a plan to escape. Shute and the other carbuncles had been chased down a hallway by Sephiroth and, after a while, had split up. Shute kept running until his nose caught a scent of something familiarly metallic; Gundanium!

He dug his claws into the stone floor and screamed, "CAPTAIN!"

"Shute!"

"SHUTE, WHAT THE H- OW!"

"Shute, get us out of here!"

Shute whipped around a corner and rammed his ruby forehead into the Gundam's cage bars, set up much in the same way as his bars back in the carbuncle cage. Before he could pull his head away, Captain had caught him by the scruff of the neck. "Shute, are you alright?"

"Captain, this has been a really weird day," Shute pleaded. "Please, let go of my neck."

Captain obliged, and Shute back away so that all three Gundams were in his line of sight. Zero grasped the bars tightly. "Shute, save yourself. If our swords can't cut through the bars, there's nothing _you_ can do."

Shute felt his chest tighten. "Don't worry."

The boy-buncle took the bars in his teeth and, with one mighty YANK!

BOOM! The bars were gone!

Baku's eyes bugged out. "Holy-!"

"Don'taskIdon'tknowjustrun!"

The Gundams followed Shute's example and hightailed it down the hallway, turning left once and right twice before realizing they were lost.

And then a PA system announced "Warning. Building will self-destruct in 10 seconds."

"What!" Captain skidded to a stop, grabbing Shute and Baku by the neck while Zero stopped himself against the wall.

"Man, I should have known this!" Shute cried. "The villain's lair always explodes!"

"7-6-5..."

Zero summoned his sword and beckoned his friends around him. "Hurry, I'll be able to shield you, but only if you're close."

"4-3-2..."

"Summon shie-"

BOOM!

&&&

THUDTHUNKTHUDTHUMP!

The three Gundams landed in a perfect pile outside the now non-existant building, Shute just missing their heads by a few inches.

"This has been a weird day..."

Captain lifted himself onto his feet (and, since he was on the bottom of the Gundam pile, lifted the other two up with him). "I think I may have knocked something out of joint."

"Thank Maana we're out of there," Zero gasped, flapping his wings but not getting anywhere. "My wings feel so cramped, I can barely even fly."

"_Your_ wings..." Baku whined, but didn't finish.

Shute sighed and tucked himself into Captain's knee. "I'm tired..."

The Neopian Gundam stroked his friend's back. "It's all right. We'll get you back home, and-"

"SHUTE!"

Fox's voice rang over the landscape, and eventually three or so little blue blots appeared over the horizon. "SHUTE, WE FOUND SOMEONE WHO'LL CHANGE US BACK!"

"ALRIGHT!" Shute leapt to his feet and bounded across the grass, enticing the Gundams to follow him.

&&&

Fox ran at the front of the carbuncle pack, his silky fur gleamy in the sun. The other buncles were lost in a large tangle behind him, Vivi at the very very back. "You... HEY! YOU! You run too-"

Vivi flopped onto his face. "Fast..."

Fox skipped to a stop. "Pfft. We don't run fast, you just run slow."

Shute stepped in front of Vivi and snarled. Fox sniffed arrogantly and tossed his head.

"He's gatta run faster!"

"That's no excuse to leave a poor guy like him behind- HEY!" Shute felt himself being lifted from the ground; apparently the tired Tidus had heard enough shouting and had picked Shute up by the neck.

Fox rolled his eyes, which is hard to do when you don't have discernable pupils. "Okay, okay, geez..."

"Is there a problem, boys?"

Each carbuncle jumped to his feet and growled at the newest Carbuncle that appeared and the large lizard-man who was holding him... on a leash?

"The curse of the carbuncle hit ALL of you, too?"

"Now, Carbuncle..." said the lizard man. "We made a deal..."

The True Carbuncle rolled his eyes, another thing that's hard to picture unless you see it. "I know, I know, I'm changing 'em."

There was a blinding flash of light-

&&&

And Shute and the Gundams were dropped back in Neotopia, Shute fully returned to normal.

The boy patted his arms is disbelief, and rubbed his face checking for fur. "I'm not A DOG!"

He dove into the nearest Gundam's (Baku's) arms and hugged him tightly, Captain soon plucking him from the red Gundam's chest. "Hallelujah! Captain, look, no fur!"

"No way!" Baku cheered. His energy left him swiftly. "Well, that was anti-climactic."

"Just be glad it's over, Bakunetsumaru," Zero chided. The Lacroan Gundam patted Shute's head. "Good to see _you_ again, my friend."

Shute's grin faded into a small smile. "I hope the other guys made it back okay."

"Data suggests a 99-"

"Just say they'll be fine, Captain," Zero sighed.

Captain paused, and then turned to Shute and smiled. "They'll be fine."

Suddenly, an idea popped into Shute's head. He held out his arm and pictured the blue Carbuncle fur in his mind, and slowly his skin changed to a shiny, sky blue hue...

DONE!


End file.
